Kara White
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catscoffee.bsky.social
Kara White
@catscoffee.bsky.social
Herder of Cats | Researcher, U of Osaka, Anthropology / STS | Multimodal Experiments and Multispecies Failures
Reposted by Kara White
It's symbols all the way down, never crashing to earth, just statistical weights tumbling and tumbling and tumbling through what computer scientists term "vector space." Often, but not always, this vector space maps to the world as we more or less know it, though dressed in washed out colors. +
August 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Kara White
“The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, ‘leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,’ the scientists said in the paper.”
AI Eroded Doctors’ Ability to Spot Cancer Within Months in Study
Artificial intelligence, touted for its potential to transform medicine, led to some doctors losing skills after just a few months in a new study.
www.bloomberg.com
August 12, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Reposted by Kara White
my statement on Ai from the mini-comic I'm making as syllabus for a new class I'm teaching this fall. It's simple, but I pretty much said all I have to say on it - it robs you of decisions and struggle - and the joy of being surprised. It robs you of learning...
August 12, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Kara White
This from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social hit me over the head like a mallet of truth. This is the thing. This is what I’ve been trying to warn people about perfectly crystallized. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/o...
August 12, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Kara White
📣 72% of the UK public say laws and regulations would increase their comfort with AI. This is an increase from 62% in 2022/23.

Explore the findings from the second wave of our nationally representative survey in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute: attitudestoai.uk
Home
attitudestoai.uk
March 25, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by Kara White
Some very good news for academics chasing permissions & high res images.
July 18, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by Kara White
“We have a responsibility to think about a future where we’re not centered; there’s an optimism in that. Human beings are irresponsible. If I think about us controlling everything in the future, that feels sad.” —Joyce Hwang

IN CONVERSATION w/ @slaydok.bsky.social & @pauldobraszczyk.bsky.social:
Animal Architecture: In Conversation
An animal studies scholar talks with an architect and an architecture writer about designing for, and with, nonhuman species.
placesjournal.org
July 17, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Kara White
I made a piece of software! It’s called the film|minutes video|graphic workstation. It’s pretty niche but cool if you want to take notes or do very close readings of films/videos.
July 15, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Reposted by Kara White
My soror shared this note from a university hiring manager. The market isn’t just wrecked. I don’t think this is just a recessionary pullback. 2,000 applications for one higherEd job is 100% a sign of a structural failure. It’s so horrible. I’m sorry.
July 16, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Kara White
My wife is a screenwriter and I’m an academic. We have a longstanding argument about whose industry is harder to break into.

I am currently winning.
Worth noting that I think there were like 7 early American history jobs (incl non-TT) added last year and Major League Baseball added something like 550 rookie positions in that same timeframe.
My soror shared this note from a university hiring manager. The market isn’t just wrecked. I don’t think this is just a recessionary pullback. 2,000 applications for one higherEd job is 100% a sign of a structural failure. It’s so horrible. I’m sorry.
July 17, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Reposted by Kara White
Thanks to @sapiens.org for hosting @anthrofuentes.bsky.social at today's webinar. Really brilliant to have a 30-minute book-focused discussion, in this case, with @chipcolwell.bsky.social, around Dr. Fuentes' excellent book Sex is a Spectrum from @princetonupress.bsky.social. #Anthropology #gender
July 16, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Kara White
Reposted by Kara White
We’ve just published a fabulous new issue of Surveillance & Society with articles on #desire, student tracking, #Tesla data collection, #surveillance #art, workplace surveillance, and urban “data walks.” The journal is always fully #openaccess.

ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/su...
June 5, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Kara White
Rümeysa Öztürk spoke briefly at a press conference held when she arrived at Logan Airport tonight.

"My dear professor and lab mates are here today. I just want to highlight that. ... My advisor sent my dissertation proposal to the prison. My lab mates have been reading me books on the phone."
May 11, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by Kara White
1/ Released! Originally made in late 2021, Swarming Media is a generative codework produced by simulating a fleet of utility drones in an urban environment, performing myriad “dull, dirty, dangerous” tasks while transmitting a constant stream of terse bulletins. richardacarter.com/swarming-med...
May 5, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted by Kara White
You also can’t learn to write good papers without writing bad drafts (or bad papers) so write your own outlines, drafts, and papers!
If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.

You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.

Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
May 3, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Kara White
“In a time of destruction, create something.

A poem. A parade. A community. A school. A vow. A moral principle. One peaceful moment.”

-Maxine Hong Kingston
(from the book she wrote from scratch after her home burnt down and she lost all her drafts in the Oakland forest fires of 1991)
May 3, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Reposted by Kara White
If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.

You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.

Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
May 3, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Kara White
PARDON TRACKER REPORT: Documenting the Statements, Activities, and Networks of the Pardoned Capitol Rioters. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/jxx8j...
May 3, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Kara White
I am extremely pleased to share this feature articulating why I have lost my sanity lately. www.science.org/content/arti...
U.S. scientists’ lives and careers are being upended. Here are five of their stories
As the second Trump administration sends U.S. science into upheaval, countless researchers are fighting for their futures
www.science.org
May 3, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Kara White
I've been waiting many years for this book by Sam Bloch, finally coming our next summer!

"An extraordinary investigation into shade, bringing together science, history, urban design, and social justice to change the way we think about a critical natural resource that should be available to all."
Shade by Sam Bloch: 9780593242766 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
An extraordinary investigation into shade, bringing together science, history, urban design, and social justice to change the way we think about a critical natural resource that should be available to...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
May 3, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Kara White
We invite you to join us for CASPR 2025. This year’s event centers on the escalating crises that are reshaping the conditions of knowledge production across institutional, national, and disciplinary boundaries.

When? May 2nd.
Where? caspr2025.eventbrite.com

#sts #anthropology
April 7, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Kara White
Just got warned that the new "Voice Isolation" feature in Teams, if turned on and trained on a male voice, will filter out all the women in the room, while still allowing the men in the room to be heard online.

*clears throat*

IF YOU USE A BIASED TRAINING SET, YOUR TECHNOLOGY WILL BE BIASED.
a woman in a black dress says it - it - the f - it - flam - flames
Alt: a woman in a black dress says "it - it - the f - it - flam - flames on the side of my face", while gesturing at her face.
media.tenor.com
May 1, 2025 at 8:56 PM